India, Aug. 30 -- As families celebrated Raksha Bandhan 2026 on August 28, a common question around family property is whether a sister has the same legal rights as her brother in ancestral property.

For Hindus, a daughter is a coparcener by birth, with the same rights and liabilities in coparcenary property as a son. The Hindu Succession (Amendment) Act, 2005, amended Section 6 of the Hindu Succession Act, 1956, to give daughters equal rights in coparcenary property.

The Supreme Court settled the issue in its landmark 2020 judgment, holding that a daughter becomes a coparcener by birth and that the father need not have been alive when the 2005 amendment came into force for her to claim her rights. The court also clarified that a daught...